HOT NEWS: After 58 years of production, and 38,000 sailboats, the MacGregors are retiring. Production of the MacGregor 26 has been discontinued. Our daughter and son in law, Laura and Paul Sharp, have opened a new boat building business in Stuart, Florida, and are manufacturing a boat similar to our MacGregor 26. Contact them at tattooyachts.com

For all of the details about our retirement, and for the full MacGregor 26 website, click here.

HISTORY OF THE TRAILERABLE SAILBOAT
INDUSTRY

Roger MacGregor

MacGregor Yacht Corporation began in the early 60's
as a class project at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, while Roger
MacGregor was earning an MBA degree. The company
has always been the most innovative in the industry. We invented the
retracting keel and started the trailerable sailboat market, the fastest
growing segment of sailing. After MacGregor built tens of thousands of
retracting keel sailboats, cars became smaller and lighter. Weight reduction
became essential for safer and easier trailering. We then invented the water
ballast system, that provides the safety of a true keelboat, with the light
weight needed for trailering and high performance. The MacGregor designed
water ballast system has been copied by other major builders, and has become
the new standard for the trailerable sailboat industry. The light weight
then allowed us to develop a high performance sailboat that can be driven at
high speed by relatively low horsepower outboard motors. The culmination of
all of this is the MacGregor 26.

Most major sailboat companies have
had a shot at making trailerables, including such well known names as
Islander, Columbia, Cal, O'day, Clipper, Coastal Recreation (Aquarius),
Newport Boats, San Juan, Ericson, Bayliner, Reinell, Laguna, Olson, Schock
and dozens of others. They are either gone completely, no longer attempt to
compete in this market, or are building so few of this type of boat that
they are no longer a significant factor. The trailerable cruiser is a small
boat with the amenities of a big boat. To pack these amenities into a boat
which is light enough to haul around, and to take the abuse of trailering,
you really have to optimize. They were unable to do this, control costs,
provide performance, or give customers what they wanted. Acquisition by
large conglomerates sank several companies under layers of management. Many
suffered from warrantee problems and others died off because they had so
many types of boats in their line that they couldn't concentrate on building
detailed, foolproof, low cost tooling and production systems for any one
boat.

The result is that we have the best
selling boat of this type in the world. We have built over 36,000 sailboats. In
this competitive society, we would have been gone along time ago if our boats
weren't right.

Sail Magazine recently recognized
MacGregor as one of the most innovative of the sailboat builders over the last 3
decades, and as the builder that brought affordable sailing to thousands.